The Way It Should Be
by valerianangel
Summary: This work of fanfiction is basically how I think the show should be. Starts at mid-season six finale and continues on until the end of the show! (I'm not good at summaries, but I think this should suffice.)
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

This story is strictly based on how I think the mid-finale of season six should've happened, and how I think the rest of the show should go.

This story is rated T for some language, violence, among other things haha.

Okay, enough babbling!

ENJOY!


	2. Game Over, Charles

Pretty Little Liars

Season six, episode ten,

"Game Over, Charles"

 **Disclaimer:** All rights go to ABCfamily, Sara Shepard, and all those involved in the making of the Pretty Little Liars universe.

* * *

Spencer was dangling below a pit of fire – the A that had once made her feel powerless made her feel powerful. But as the floor fell through, the bracelet she was wearing caught one of the metal rods sticking out from the ground. She was holding on for dear life, however, she ultimately knew her fate. She was going to fall into the pit as well, but she knew damn well that she saved her friends' lives. She wouldn't have died in vain.

She was about to let go, but someone caught her arm. It was Emily. "Spencer, I've got you! We've got you!" Suddenly, all five girls she'd arrived with had their arms out to help Spencer up. They pulled her up and tried to get Spencer on her feet.

"I thought I told you guys to get out of here," Spencer mustered all the strength you could to speak to the five girls in front of her, "where are the others?"

"We did, but then we thought, what are friends for?" Alison spoke for the girls and handed Spencer the jacket she wore to prom.

"The others are out front, calling the police. Come on, we've gotta get out of here before the building burns down on us." Mona said as she ran out of the room they were in – the girls hurriedly follow suit.

* * *

 _Earlier That Night…_

"Alison!" All four of the girls shouted in unison; they had to find her before Charles could get his filthy hands on her. If they didn't make it in time, then there would be no telling what Charles would do to her. The girls ran as fast as they could through the maze, looking around where they could see, and they found nothing. They reached the end of the maze, and took a moment to catch their breaths.

As Spencer breathed out, she looked down and noticed something sparkling on the ground. It was Alison's phone. "Guys, it's Ali's phone." She picked it up and was taken aback. The phone was unlocked meaning she didn't willingly leave it on the ground, but that wasn't what unnerved her. There were texts from Charles on the phone. "Charles has her; we have to figure out where the he hell he took her." Spencer was nearly shouting in anger.

"Are you sure he took her? What if Ali dropped her phone and just walked out without noticing?" Emily asked Spencer, trying to be as optimistic as possible.

"Ali doesn't go anywhere without her phone unless she's at home, Em." Aria spoke with her voice nearly cracking as she finished her sentence. She honestly terrified over what could have happened to Alison.

Hanna was about to speak, but from the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of red. "We're not alone; I think red coat is here." Hanna whispered to the girls.

All four of them turned to follow what Hanna saw and walked around the fence of vines that was in the maze, but as soon as they looped around towards the back, they ran into a dead end. There was no way what Hanna saw was accurate.

"Han, are you sure you saw something? There's nothing he-" Aria was cut off by the sound of the wall behind them opening. They stared at the wall, mortified. The wall opened and revealed a dark room behind it; the lights in the room flashed on and a female in a red coat stood before them. They were wearing a demon mask, but they pulled it off as well as pulling down their hood. The person was Mona.

"Mona, you're red coat?" Spencer deadpanned; this wasn't possible. She was A before, but why was she A once more? Especially after the way Charles tortured them.

Mona rolled her eyes as Spencer made her accusation, and then spoke with an extremely sarcastic tone, "No, you idiot, I'm red riding hood. Anyways, I know you four are looking for Alison and I can help. I snarfed Alison when she got back in town and placed a tracker in almost every pair of her shoes," The girls looked at her with a 'what-the-hell' expression, but she kept speaking, "right now, I'm trying to track where she's at with her shoes a-" Mona was cut off by a loud beeping come from the tablet inside of the bag that was slung over her shoulder. She pulled out the tablet and her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Mona, what is it?" Hanna asked, determined to find out what just happened to one of her closest friends.

"It's…" She trailed off, clearly not believing what she was looking at.

"Mona, seriously, tell us what's going on." Emily demanded with her arms crossed against her chest. She was in no mood for games and if Mona was about to play one, she didn't have time for it.

"Charles has his own network; I can't gain access to Alison's shoes, but I know where the network source is." She showed the girls the network map on her tablet and Spencer's face twisted in disbelief.

Hanna spoke up before Spencer had the chance, "I knew Rhys was Charles – he screams DiLaurentis in appearance. I knew it had to count for something."

"Come on, let's go take this bitch down, get Ali, and end this game once and for all." Spencer said as she girls followed her out of the maze.

* * *

Spencer pulled her Toyota Highlander into a parking space that wasn't but twenty feet from the entrance to the Carissimi Group building's entrance. As the girls arrived, they noticed how empty and dark the street they were on was.

"Do you think Charles has some secret plan to kill us and that's why he's dimmed all the lights and evacuated the area?" Hanna asked as they walked towards the entrance.

"Gee, Hanna, what a great time to be such an optimist." Emily scoffed as they made their way towards the elevator.

The elevator up to the locked room where they were positive Charles had Alison was silent, but it wasn't awkward. Each girl was trying to get their minds ready to face Charles' torment whether it would be physical or emotional. The elevator opened and they made their way down the hallway towards the safe. After about five minutes of trying at least fifteen different combinations, Mona finally suggested something that made sense.

"Try Mrs. D's birthday – it's twelve-eighteen," She had her head on her forehead, displaying how truly exhausted she felt.

"Mona, how do you even know that?" Aria asked her as she leaned against the wall.

"It takes a lot to be A – and unfortunately for me, I have a great memory." She sighed with her hand still on her forehead.

Spencer input the code into the keypad and it blinked green. "We have to stay quiet; we don't know who Charles is or what he's capable of." She pushed the door open slowly, just in case Charles was waiting for them on the other side.

When the door opened, all five girls walked in to the empty room. "Charles isn't stupid; he's an expert at hiding. Look around the room for a button, maybe a switch; there has got to be something." Mona said, turning to check against the walls.

Hanna felt around a picture frame and felt her hand push something inwards. As soon as this happened, the wall to the east was revealed to be a door. It opened down the middle and revealed an extremely high-tech room.

"This is Charles' lair. He's an entrepreneur and he's a fricking mad genius." Hanna said as they walked towards the middle table in the room.

There was a holographic screen towards the wall in front of them and Aria walked towards it, trying to stick her hand through it, however, her hand didn't go through. She didn't feel like finding out what would happen next if she kept touching it so she went back to stand with the girls. They were all looking around the room while Mona was messing with the control monitor in front of them. Suddenly, Alison flashed on screen. She was lying down on a shabby bed that looked at least ten years old. She was still wearing her prom dress and she was lying motionless.

"Is she dead?" Hanna asked Mona as Mona tampered with the panel. She was trying to find a way to motion the camera to look around the room Alison was in. Mona noticed Alison's chest barely moving.

"She's alive, but I'm not sure for how long," She pressed a green button and the camera turned to look around the room. The camera was facing downward and something caught Mona's eye. She pressed the zoom button and her eyes widened in horror. There were two bodies lying on the floor outside of the room Alison was in. All five girls gasped when they realized who it was: Mr. DiLaurentis and Jason were lying on their backs with their eyes open.

"Tell me that they aren't…" Spencer trailed off, feeling extremely uneasy. As much as she didn't like Mr. DiLaurentis, and as much as she and Jason cold-shouldered each other, she didn't want them to be dead.

"Jason… No, this has to be wrong. Mona, tell me they're alive." Aria said, biting back tears that were starting to form in her eyes. Even though she wasn't to Jason, she still couldn't help but feel sadness over his death.

"Mona, talk to us. Are they dead?" Emily pleaded for an answer. She was feeling even more distaste for A than she already had.

"They're alive. They're chests are barely moving, but they're alive. They just can't move. When I was locked in that dollhouse, before you guys showed up, Charles did that to me. He had me blindfolded so I couldn't see him, but he tortured me – treated me like I was his own personal doll. I was so grateful when you guys showed up, but this is so mortifying." Mona's voice was almost a whisper, clearly revealing she was still extremely traumatized.

Before any of the girls had time to comfort Mona, Mona's phone began to ring. She slid the answer button and listened. After a minute of listening, she hung up and put the phone back down. "I know where Alison's at. She's in Radley. We gotta go, now."

* * *

"Mona, are you sure this is where Alison's at?" Emily asked as all five of the girls were wondering around the first floor of Radley.

All the times that the girls had previously been in Radley, they thought it was one of the creepiest places to ever be in Rosewood. But now that they were at night, they finally declared that it was the _creepiest_ place in Rosewood; not just one of them.

"Seriously, because this place is giving me the creeps." Hanna said as she held her arms across her chest as a feeling of security.

"My contact said that she's on the third floor; we need to hurry before Charles even thinks about hurting Alison." Mona pushed open the doorway that led to the staircase, and the girls followed her up the stairs as fast as possible. Mona pushed open the third floor's doorway and halted as soon as they stepped through. Her face seemed puzzled more than anything.

"Mona, what's -" Hanna began, but Mona cut her off with a 'shh.'

The girls were confused, but then they realized something. There was humming and it was coming towards their direction. "What do we do?" Aria whispered to the girls, but no one answered her.

They all stood still as if they were camouflaged, but even in the dark, their bright prom dresses were very vivid and very visible. The girls were about to turn and make a run for it to hide, but the humming stopped.

"Well, that wasn't fifty shades of creepy," Spencer began, sighing softly as she shook her head. "we really need to get to Ali and unmask this bitch once and for all."

The rest of the girls nodded in agreement and they began making their way down the hall to meet Alison. They passed the DiLaurentis boys, wishing they could do more to help them, but there wasn't really anything they could do. They opened the door that led to where Alison was and they found her still lying down on the small, shabby bed.

The girls hurried over to Alison's side and Emily began to shake her shoulders, trying to wake her up. Alison's eyes popped open and she immediately sat up. "Where am I?" she said lowly, trying to regain the strength to speak.

"You're in Radley – Charles kidnapped you and we're trying to figure out why. But that can wait 'til later. Right now, we need to get the hell out of here." Spencer said, offering Alison a hand.

"Guys, I know who Charles is. You're not gonna believe me, but you really need to. What I'm about to say is nothing but the –"

"The truth? Come on, Alison, we all know that everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie." A voice from behind them spoke up. It was masculine and it was a voice they all recognized. Suddenly, a hooded person came out from the shadows. They removed their hood and their identity was revealed. The identity of their tormentor for so many years had been revealed. "I mean, poor Emily thought for so long that you loved her when in reality; you couldn't care less about her feelings. And then you manipulated Ezra into hurting Aria with everything he's done and some that you've all yet to learn. Not to mention that you're the one responsible for Hanna losing her way and almost dying in the process. Let's also not forget that you're the reason Mona went almost insane and had a midlife crisis in her late teenage years because you bullied her into it. But you're also the reason that Melissa will soon end up in jail, I mean, you're the one who called the cops and told them that she killed Bethany Young." He finished speaking with a smirk and titled his head in approval of the shocked expressions over every girls' face.

Spencer stood where she was, blindsided by the revelation of A. She felt her heart shatter into millions of pieces – tears were forming in her eyes, and she slowly fell to the floor. "T-Toby…? W-Why…?" Her voice cracked as she said each word. She was in too much agony to use her voice at its full level.

Emily was completely stunned. She wasn't as harmed as Spencer was because she didn't love Toby like Spencer, but she trusted him with so much and he betrayed them like this. Except that it wasn't him doing this to protect them this time. It was him doing this because he enjoyed seeing them in so much pain.

Mona was trying to piece together every fragment she knew about A and putting Toby in A's spot. The more that she thought about this, the more that it all started to come together. Toby had the funds for it, he had the knowledge for it, but his back story is what she needed to know so that it would all make sense.

Hanna was holding herself in her arms, feeling as if everything she's ever known about anyone was a lie. How could she know who was innocent and who was guilty? This had proven to her that no one was to be trusted anymore.

Aria couldn't help but feel like this was all wrong – like it wasn't actually true that he was A. Then she realized something. "Wait, you were there at prom with us – how did you manage to sneak away so fast and kidnap Ali like you did? Caleb was with you the entire time… Unless he's in on it too."

"You see, Caleb is under the impression that I left as soon as word got out that Alison was gone. I had one of my darling red coats grab her and bring her to me as soon as I left Caleb. When Alison realized it was me, one of my beauties drugged her, knocking her unconscious." As he was speaking about his red coats, the two of them came forward from the dark. One was humming an awfully familiar tune that Mona was sure she had heard before.

"Wait a minute, that song that you're humming – that's the song in my record player. I was playing it last night before I went to sleep… You were in my room last night, but how?" Mona wanted an answer – she needed one. She couldn't bear not knowing.

The one that was humming stopped and just nodded her head slowly. Clearly giving the satisfaction that Mona wanted.

"Now that we're all here and familiar with each other, I want to unmask my helper's and bring out the spy that was in your group besides me. Sara, come forth, please."

Sara Harvey stepped forward in a black hoodie and a twisted smile on her face. She was pleased with how all of this was going. If the planned stayed like this, the girls would be dead by the end of the night. "When shall we kill them, Toby?"

Toby's amused expression quickly turned into disgust. "If you speak another word about murdering them, I will murder you. Do you understand?"

"All I asked was when, I ne-" She was cut off by a loud gunshot.

The girls screamed in fear, and then they realized what had just happened. Toby had shot her in the side of her head while she was in the middle of blinking. She was dead because she asked a simple question about the girls being murdered.

Spencer was still in too much shock and pain to process why he'd shot Sara; Emily was trying to put all the pieces together; Mona was close to figuring out the reason he'd shot her; Aria was doing the same as Emily; Hanna had tears in her eyes out of fear, and could barely process the situation; and Alison spoke up, "You killed her because she wanted us dead – that means you're not going to kill us. You're just going to torture us until you feel like we're dolls that you can just toss away."

Toby said nothing and this was because Alison was one hundred percent accurate. "I love the fact that the DiLaurentis gene allows us to process information so fast like that, don't you?" He smirked at her as if he was waiting for a reaction. When he didn't receive one, he continued speaking. "And by now, you're trying to figure why I'm doing this. Well, I'll gladly tell all of you. But first, I need my darlings to tie you up," he turned his head to the red coats, "Girls." He commanded them. They moved towards the girls and tied them all up to one another and against the bed that Alison had been asleep on.

"Now, who's ready for story time? I know I am." The way he smiled at the girls was if he was savoring every moment of torment that they felt being in Radley. It was like some sort of twisted feeling the girls received when they would look up at him and see the smile. It made them absolutely terrified over what was going to happen to them next.

"Growing up, I had this weird fascination with dolls – it wasn't really a 'I-want-to-play-with-Barbies' thing, it was more of a 'I-love-the-fact-that-I-can-control-them' thing. I liked the power I had when I would play with dolls. Naturally, mom didn't really care because I was so young, but Dad found it really creepy that I even touched a doll since it was affiliated with girly things. But I didn't care. I admired the way they were so still – so _peculiarly motionless._ We all think that dolls are alive at one point, but I truly did think they were. But when I realized they weren't and that I had control over them, I began making them do as I pleased." The way Toby's face was as he described this – it was like he was reliving his childhood all over again.

"When you were a baby, you were crying loudly and mom was outside with Dad and Jason. You wouldn't stop crying – it was so annoying; irritating. But I wanted to make you happy – I wanted you to stop crying so I could be happy. So, I tried to control the situation. I tried to give you a bath. You see, baths made me happy, and I thought maybe they'd do the same thing for you. I turned the water on while you were placed in the middle of the bathtub. And then you laid there, still crying, as the tub filled up. Then you started to drown – which I didn't know would happen because I was _five_. But then dad came in, screaming how I was the worst mistake of his life, and the next thing I knew, I was in Radley for a month, and then put up for adoption." He spit his words in anger as he mentioned Mr. DiLaurentis, revealing just how much he truly hated him.

"Mom – she didn't even try to stop it; it's like she was too humiliated that she had so much love for a child that tried to murder her youngest child." He shook his head in disbelief, but then he continued. "I was in the adoption agency for at least three months – I was coping with abandonment until the Cavanaugh family decided to adopt me as their own. They raised me the way I should've been raised, and they never acted like I was adopted. The memories I had of being a DiLaurentis child just faded away – it was strange, like, the ones I created as Marion's kid just kinda took over…" Tears began forming in his eyes, and one rolled down the side of his cheek. "When I was about twelve, I found out that she was pushed off the top of Radley. I was disgusted and I knew who had involvement in it – my mother. She was keeping a secret at Radley and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. I spent years trying to piece it together and I found my opportunity. Right before Mona was exposed as A, she asked me to join her, and so, I did. She planned to be exposed and have me to do her dirty work. Originally, I wasn't for it, but she blackmailed me into it. But the game was so fun – seeing you tormented over _my_ control was so amazing. So, I set out to make a team. And that's when I picked up my two little helpers."

The red coats stepped forward and removed their masks. The identities of the red coats were finally revealed. They were Melissa Hastings and Maya St. Germain.

All six of the girls asked, and before any of them had time to speak, Toby began talking again. "The reason they're even helping me is because I'm blackmailing them. Spencer's safety for Melissa's help, and Emily's safety for Maya's help – it's genius, isn't it?"

The two girls who were being used had pure hatred for Toby written all over their faces, but they were too terrified to do anything.

"Anyways," Toby spoke, clearing his throat, "after I rallied them up, I had them pose as decoys with Ali and CeCe, and we were supposed to kill Mona at the lodge, but Wilden and Shana decided to burn the lodge down. So, we decided to regroup. Honestly, I have no idea who the hell Black Veil is; her identity is so well-hidden and I'm still trying to crack the code she's placed to hide her identity."

He crossed his arms against his chest and began narrating once more, "I think I know who killed Jessica, but I'm not entirely sure. I want to make them pay for it, though. As much as I didn't like her, she was still my mother." He walked over to where his father and brother were, "I hatched this scheme to keep some of you in my personal dollhouse for a while, not forever, and then it all fell apart. You all got away because of your stupidity and that truly angered me. You all belong to me, no one else. You're all mine. _Never_ forget that." He looked down and his eyes widened as if he had just remembered something he forgot. "Sara was spying on you and trying to break little Emily's heart under my orders. She was trying to keep you all under surveillance after you took your trackers out. Now, that is the end of that. What'd you guys think? Great story, right?" He started laughing hysterically as he finished this sentence.

"You're insane!" Spencer screamed at him with angry tears filling her eyes.

The other five just remained quiet, hoping that someone would think of a way out. Melissa turned her head to look at Maya and Maya looked back at her. Together, they lifted their leg close to Toby and hit him with it, knocking him over. Maya ran over to the girls and began untying them. "We've been waiting to hear this story since he recruited us, now, we can go to the cops and get out of here. Come on, let's go." Melissa said as she poured lighter fluid all over the room they were in. She struck a match and threw it on the floor.

The girls ran out, but now before Toby managed to grab Spencer, "Go!" She screamed, "I'll be right behind you, just go!" The girls nodded and continued running forward.

"You really shouldn't have done that, Spence. Now, I have you all to myself." He straddled her and held her arms against the ground. "If I burn, you're burning with me."

"No," Spencer shrieked; she kicked Toby off of her and kicked him in the head. He was lying on the ground with his vision blurred. "Tell me this, Charles," She practically spit out his name in disgust, "how does it feel knowing that the girls you loved to torture so much are leaving you to burn in the hell you belong in? Sucks, doesn't it? I loved you, Toby, and you decided to hurt me like this. You're dead. To me and in reality." She picked up the lamp that was on the table next to her and hit him as hard as she could with it. The lamp snapped in half and landed in the flames that began to grow next her. She turned to walk away, but the floor beneath them fell through and Toby fell to his demise, engulfed by the flames.

Spencer was dangling below a pit of fire – the A that had once made her feel powerless made her feel powerful. But as the floor fell through, the bracelet she was wearing caught one of the metal rods sticking out from the ground. She was holding on for dear life, however, she ultimately knew her fate. She was going to fall into the pit as well, but she knew damn well that she saved her friends' lives. She wouldn't have died in vain.

She was about to let go, but someone caught her arm. It was Emily. "Spencer, I've got you! We've got you!" Suddenly, all five girls she'd arrived with had their arms out to help Spencer up. They pulled her up and tried to get Spencer on her feet.

"I thought I told you guys to get out of here," Spencer mustered all the strength you could to speak to the five girls in front of her, "where are the others?"

"We did, but then we thought, what are friends for?" Alison spoke for the girls and handed Spencer the jacket she wore to prom.

"The others are out front, calling the police. Come on, we've gotta get out of here before the building burns down on us." Mona said as she ran out of the room they were in – the girls hurriedly follow suit.

They pushed open Radley's doors and walked down the entrance's steps towards the eight cop cars that were lined up the block. Tanner ran towards them, completely shocked over the fact that Radley was burning down as she approached them. "What happened in there?"

Melissa walked towards the group and spoke for the girls, "Officer Toby Cavanaugh was Charles DiLaurentis – note how I said was because he fell to his death after attempting to kill us; Maya St. Germain and I were blackmailed into being his henchmen known as the red coats, but we turned on him; Jessica DiLaurentis was supposedly murdered by Kenneth DiLaurentis—" before she could continue speaking, Kenneth and Jason both made their way out of the building, completely petrified after hearing Toby's story. "anyways, Sara Harvey was a mole in our ranks and was Toby's second in command, and that's all that we found out tonight."

Tanner stared at them in disbelief, but she knew that they had absolutely no reason to lie. "Alright, well, let's get you girls to the police station. All you have to do is tell us everything that happened."

And just like that, they were free of A forever.

* * *

 _Labor Day Weekend…_

It was five o'clock in the afternoon, and four cars were in the front yard of the DiLaurentis property. A two-thousand-thirteen, Toyota Highlander Hybrid belonged to Spencer Hastings; a two-thousand-thirteen Toyota Prius belonged to Aria Montgomery; a two-thousand-thirteen Toyota Corolla belonged to Emily Fields; and a two-thousand-thirteen Mercedes Benz C class were parked towards the exit of the driveway. Aria, Alison, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer stood in a circle, facing each other.

"Can you guys believe this," Aria said with a hint of disbelief in her voice, "we're actually going to college without A following us there."

"It feels like I can finally breathe knowing that I won't have that bitch constantly texting me a stupid message when I do something dumb," Hanna laughed as she finished her sentence.

"Hanna, instead of having A text you when you do something dumb, you might have Caleb making comments about it instead," Spencer grinned as she said this while Hanna snorted and shook her head.

"I just can't believe all of you are leaving me here in Rosewood to go pursue your dreams; I thought for sure that you'd all stay my loyal minions forever," Alison said sarcastically. She hoped the girls would take what she said as a joke – it had been so long since she could say something so jokingly without them being overly cautious, but after many nights opening up to each other after A was gone, they all got over their fears and insecurities about one another.

"Oh, come on, Ali. We're not leaving you forever – we'll be here for holidays and anytime you need us." Emily smiled at Alison and squeezed her hand trying to make it clear she would always be there for her.

"Ali, we promise to never stray too far away from each other and to stay in contact as much as possible. Without each other, we'd all be hopeless cases – right, guys?" Spencer said, trying to comfort Alison.

"Right, and if we ever start to drift away, just call our asses back to Rosewood. I'm sure we'll have lots to say if we are drifting away." Hanna grabbed Alison's free hand and squeezed it as well.

"Guys, it's hard to believe it's all over, I mean, after Toby…" Aria trailed off, clearly unsure what else to say.

"Can we please not talk about that? It's all over, and frankly, I'd like to never speak of him again." Spencer deadpanned as she sighed softly.

The girls looked towards her as she said this, but they understood. Toby had lied to all of them about being Charles. Emily was distraught for weeks after Radley burned down Hanna was cautious of trusting people closest to her for a month; Spencer stayed in her room for a solid two months, trying to cope; Aria had spent many nights at Spencer's, trying to comfort her; and Alison was constantly trying to put all of the girls back together like she was some form of super glue. She was hardly affected when Toby died due to her anger, but she released it no longer after, and felt free. This gave her the eligibility she needed to be the supportive best friend for all of the girls. She held sleepovers and so forth at Spencer's house and they almost never left the Hastings' household until the end of July. Once August started, all of the girls began focusing on getting everything together for college and Alison decided that she would wait a year to start college so that she could get all the education she missed in before she started.

"Anyways, guys, we have to leave soon." Emily said, looking down at the watch on her wrist.

"Oh yeah, that's right, we gotta hit the road soon," Hanna said as she pulled her iPhone out of her back pocket, looking at the time on the lock screen.

"But before we go, we should totally have a group high, right here, right now." Aria said with a smile that she knew would never go away in the moments they had like this.

All five of the girls moved forward and wrapped their arms around each other.

"To happiness, dreams, and everything great that we can imagine." Spencer said as she tightened her grip on the group hug.

"I love all of you so much – you've been here for me and I am so glad to have you as my _friends._ " Alison said as tears began forming in her eyes.

"Ali, we love you too," Hanna spoke for the group and tears began forming in her eyes as well.

Shortly after, tears were in all of their eyes and they didn't want to let go, but they knew they had to. They let each other go and the girls walked towards their cars, saying their goodbyes. One by one, the cars drove away.

Alison stood in her front yard, feeling as relieved as possible, watching the cars drive away. She felt as if there was nothing to worry about. It was all over and they could finally move on with their lives. She turned around and went inside her house, shutting the door, and feeling safe enough to not lock it.

But she shouldn't feel that safe because the game isn't over yet.

Across the street and a house over, a lean, female figure stood in the window, looking over the neighborhood. She was dressed in black; there was a veil and a torched mask placed on a table next to her, signifying her identity: Black Veil, also known as the Black Widow. Her eyes were on the cars that left the DiLaurentis house, and then they were on Alison as she stood in her front yard. Her mouth twitched in disgust and she sighed softly.

"Why are any of us here? This makes no sense to me." Noel Khan said while shaking his head.

"I'm finding it hard to tell if your hair is a wig or not, but either way, I feel like it's familiar." Jenna Marshall said with her arms crossed, revealing she could see once more.

"Why am I here? I didn't do anything wrong." Lesley Stone held onto herself, trying to gain balance of her fractured state.

"None of us did anything so why don't you tell us who you are and why we're here." Lucas Gottesman said, obviously being extremely irritated.

"I don't understand why we're here, and I sure as hell wish you'd turn around so I knew who you were. You could be a murderer, for all we know" Sydney Driscoll demanded with her arms crossed.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Sydney. I'm not a murderer – just an entrepreneur with a plan," the woman finally spoke. She turned around to face them and all five of them were taken aback. She had long, honey-blonde hair that was obviously not a wig; her blue eyes were outlined in black eyeliner; and her plump lips were glossed over with a light pink lip gloss. Her appearance was strikingly similar to Alison DiLaurentis.

"CeCe Drake – what the hell do you want?" Noel demanded furiously.

"Noel, if you don't calm the hell down, I will push you out of this window and willingly let you fall to your death." CeCe spoke softly as her lips twisted in an evil smile.

Noel closed his mouth and looked mortified – this was precisely what she wanted.

"What are we doing here?" Jenna asked in a shaky voice, showing how uneasy she felt.

"All six of us here have been wronged by six Pretty Little Liars. Lucas, you've been wronged by Hanna; Noel, you've been wronged by Aria; Sydney, you've been wronged by Emily; Jenna, you've been wronged by Spencer; and Lucas, you've been wronged by Mona. If all of us form together and bring A back, we can easily ruin them as much as they have ruined us." CeCe had her arms crossed the entire time she spoke, but everyone in the room was still off balance.

"What happens if we say no?" Sydney asked her, trying to steady her ground.

"What I said would happen to Noel will happen to you." CeCe didn't even hesitate to answer. She was deadset on getting her way.

"How are we going to pull this off?" Lucas asked her.

"Oh, that's easy. We're going to follow them and learn every secret they have. And when they return to Rosewood, and trust me, they will return, we'll be ready to destroy them once and for all."

* * *

 **A/N:** Honestly, I didn't expect this to turn out this well. The way I ended it was the perfect cliffhanger that the finale should have included, but it did not.

My biggest plot twist is the CeCe being Black Veil. I feel as if she should've been her instead of Shower, I mean, Sara Harvey.

And then red coat being two more people: Maya and Melissa – who were both blackmailed into doing it.

This just turned out so well and I'm just so proud.

But anyways, leave reviews and please be nice with them!


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